


Everyone Wants To Come To New York

by Moondragon8



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Don't think too hard about it, Fluff and Humor, Gen, I don't know how to tag this, Reincarnation, but...also not really??, time displacement, uh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2019-11-18 16:07:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18123494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moondragon8/pseuds/Moondragon8
Summary: Les makes a friend. The newsies find some bad role models. Davey is confused. New York is better than being dead, I guess.Based on a Tumblr thread started, almost accidentally, by me.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The link to the thread:
> 
> https://and-i-lostmy-shoe.tumblr.com/post/183389299517/okay-butnewsiesles-mis-parallels-symbolic#notes

It was a good day in New York City. The sky was blue, the newsies were yelling, the people were rushing this way and that, and there were even a few horseless carriages about. 

Cosette could not appreciate any of it, as she was more concerned with what she was doing there, and indeed, where she was at all. 

Her first thought was that her father was there, when she distinctly recalled him dying, so perhaps she was also dead. Somehow. She certainly didn’t remember it. 

Her second thought was that actually, a lot of people who were, to the best of her knowledge, dead, were there, which only increased her theory.

“Is this heaven?” Eponine asked, breaking the confused silence. “Because I would not pictured heaven to have so many buildings, or people, or-“

“POLITICAL SCANDAL! HEARD IT HERE FIRST!”

“New..sies?”

There was a confused pause as everyone tried to reconcile newsies to their current theories about where they were, and then...

“Hey!”

“Wait!”

“No!”

“Huh?” 

Gavroche had dashed across the street and was now excitedly talking to that newsie from before. 

Cosette put out a cautious foot as if to test the street for stability. A carriage rattled by and she pulled it back in alarm. 

“I’m very confused,” Marius said, summarizing everyone’s feelings. 

Gavroche came back across the street, the newsie in tow.

“This is Les. He’s my friend now,” the boy introduced, seemingly thinking this was enough of an explanation.

Les nodded politely and immediately launched into questioning. 

“Why’s your hair weird? Is that a newsie hat or a regular hat? What’s an Amis? Wanna buy a newspaper? The headline’s very exciting.”

Everyone turned to Enjolras as the spokesperson.

“Listen, we just want to know what time it is,” Enjolras finally said. 

“I don’t have a watch.”

“...date and time?” 

“Ohhh,” Les said. He nodded. “You’ll have to buy a newspaper.”

“I-no!”

“You see, I died recently, and I didn’t happen to have any money on me when I did,” Grantaire explained. When everyone turned to glare at him, he defended himself with “What? It’s the truth!”

Les’s eyes widened. “You’re dead?”

“I think.”

“Oooh! Davey’s gonna go all ‘Whaaaa?’ when he hears about this! C’mon!”

Les dashed off, Gavroche followed, and with really very few other options, everyone else did as well. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katherine rethinks life choices.

Katherine loved hanging out with Jack, and the other newsies ranged from tolerable to downright interesting, but some days she rather regretted all her life choices that had led to her befriending them.

Take today, for example. She had gotten it in her head to go and see her boyfriend, and had wound up playing War with Crutchie (and losing) while waiting for him to come back from selling papers. And now Les had burst in with several time-displaced..dead...French people?

She wasn’t entirely sure.

“Is this normal for you?” she whispered to Crutchie under cover of Les excitedly explaining something about policemen in disguise. 

“No, I’m as confused as you are.”

This was some comfort. 

“So….you’re dead,” Davey said, very matter-of-factly for what he was currently facing. 

“I  _ was,”  _ Eponine clarified. “I don’t think I still am.”

“And you’re from the French Revolution.”

“Actually, it was more like...a later attempt at reviving the revolution. Speaking of which, how  _ is  _ France? It looks more or less the same. Less barricades, but that’s to be expected since I assume we’ve been dead for a while.”

Davey buried his head in his hands and made a very odd noise that sounded like a bird giving up on life. 

“This is America, actually,” Crutchie spoke up. 

There was a weird pause.

“Yeah! And it’s a demo-crock-cra-cy!” Les said. He poked Davey. “See? I’m learning things!” When Davey didn’t respond, he frowned. “Oh no. He must be really upset. Usually he’s very happy about school.”

“America’s still a country? Impressive,” Enjolras said. 

“How’d you get all the way to America from France?” Buttons asked. “Isn’t France, like, really far away?”

“I died,” Grantaire deadpanned. 

“Wow. And you didn’t even have to go through Ellis Island?”

“....no?”

Davey mumbled something and then finally looked up. “Okay.  _ Okay.  _ This is fine. I can deal with this. I will...go to the library!”

“Noooo,” Les said. 

“You don’t have to come with me,” Davey said. “Now come on, let’s go home. If we’re any later, Mother’s going to ask why we’re late and I don’t understand it myself.”

Les waved goodbye as Davey pulled him out the door, muttering about keywords and barricades.

Katherine sighed. “So...where are you guys going to stay?”


	3. Chapter 3

“DAVEY! Wakeupwakeupwakeup!”

Davey sighed and sat up, having learned from many years of experience that there was no going back to sleep once Les had decided to wake up. “I’m up.”

“GOOD!” Les said, and immediately ran out. “We have dead friends to meet!”

Davey stared incomprehensibly. 

It was halfway through breakfast when he suddenly remembered what Les was talking about.

“Davey? Are you alright?” Sarah said. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Davey didn’t respond to that. He had a feeling if he tried to it would go horribly wrong. 

* * *

 

“So, um,” Davey said, clearing his throat awkwardly. He still wasn’t entirely sure that the whole thing hadn’t been a very weird, realistic dream. 

“Yeah?” Jack said, flipping through the paper looking for a good headline to ‘expand’ on. 

“About that whole thing last night with the…”

“Oh, you mean Les Amis?” Jack said, very casually. 

Davey was confused. “Is...that their name?”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “They gave us this pamphlet thing.”  
He produced a piece of paper, which Davey took and tried to read, to no avail.

“Jack, this is in French.”

“Yeah, that Marius guy had to translate that one. They claimed we were speaking French, but I swear it sounded like they were speaking English. We all just kind of agreed to not think about it.”  
“I assume that’s what you said about the whole ‘dead’ thing?” Davey said sarcastically. 

“Pretty much. Except for this one guy, Combeferre I think? He was all ‘But this isn’t possible!! Do you think we’re ghosts? I think that’s plausible!’ and then tried to walk through a wall.” 

“Did it work?” Davey asked despite himself. 

“No,” Jack said, and started leaving. 

“Hey wait!” Les yelled, appearing out of nowhere. 

“Gah!” Davey said. 

“WHERE ARE LES AMIS RIGHT NOW?” Les yelled after Jack. 

“They went to stay with Miss Medda!” Jack called without looking back. 

Les nodded, waved goodbye to Davey, and ran off. 

Davey sighed and went to go sell newspapers. 

When he returned, Les wasn’t there. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> suddenly, a semblance of plot! kind of!


	4. Chapter 4

“Oh no. Oh no. Oh no,” Davey said over and over as he paced back and forth. “Oh noooo.”

“Cheer up! Maybe he’s still out selling,” Jack suggested. 

“No, he’s always done before I am,” Davey said. “He should be back by now! He knows to be back by now!” 

“We can help you look for him,” Crutchie offered. 

Davey looked up. “You would?”  
“Sure!” Jack said, already getting excited about the new idea. “He can’t have gotten that far, right?”

“Hello?” someone said at the door. 

“Hey,” everyone said automatically.

“Have you seen Gavroche?” Cosette said, stepping inside. 

“Who?” Crutchie said semi-discreetly. 

“I’m not entirely sure myself,” Cosette admitted, “but he seems very important to everyone and he was last seen with...your small one.”

“His name is Les,” Davey said. 

“Yes! Right! I...thank you. I did not remember that, actually.”

“Okay, newsies, listen up,” Jack said, standing on a chair for added effect. “Les is missing, he’s probably got Les Amis’s friend with him, and-”

“Oh, then he’ll be alright,” Marius said, appearing behind Cosette. “Gavroche knows Paris better than anyone!”  
“This is New York,” Davey said gently. 

“..Oh.”

“But anyway, with enough of us looking for him, and...I guess those guys are helping too, we’ll be able to find them before anything bad happens!” Jack said positively. 

“Who are we looking for again?” Cosette whispered to Marius. 

* * *

 

“Leees! Gavvy-what’s-his-face!”

“Gavroche! American kid!”

Davey sighed in frustration as he crossed the fourth street. New York was huge, and Les and his friend were very fast, and Davey was beginning to doubt they were going to find them.

“See anything?” Finch asked, startling Davey.

Davey shook his head. “I’m trying to think. If I was my little brother, where would I go?”

“I was going to say someplace you could sell papers, but he should have finished by now,” Finch said. “Maybe he just went home?” 

Davey shrugged. “Worth a try.”

* * *

 

“If I was my little brother, where would I go?” Eponine asked herself. She looked around, then frowned. “Wait, where  _ am _ I?”

She turned around in a circle. “Hmm.”

Well, when in doubt, head for the biggest building. This seemed like a good rule of thumb. 

The girl headed towards a big building a few streets away, ignoring the problem of what to do when she got there. 

As it turned out, this was not a problem, because Cosette was also there. 

“Cosette?” Eponine said. “What are you doing here?”

“Helping,” Cosette said. 

“No you’re not. You’re just standing there.”

“Shh. I found them.”

“What? Where-”

Cosette pointed to the entrance of the building, where indeed, Les and Gavroche were engaged in an energetic discussion with the man guarding the building. 

“What are they doing?” Eponine said. 

“Well, I think they’re trying to break into the building, but at this point they’re talking about the man’s pet cats, so really it’s anyone’s guess.”

Eponine sighed. “At least we found them.”

“I’ve been standing here, incidentally,” Cosette said, “partially because I’m having fun listening to this and partially because I’m pretty sure I’ll get lost if I wander off. But I don’t know how to tell someone I’ve found them without wandering off. Also, I might not be able to find them again if I go off-”

“Hang on,” Eponine interrupted, and went over to the entrance of the building. She returned in about half a minute with Les and Gavroche, both of whom looked very annoyed. 

“We were about to convince him to let us in!” Les said. 

“Well, probably not,” Gavroche admitted. “But we were having a really fun conversation!”

“Tell someone next time you’re going to break into a building,” Eponine said. 

“Oh! That was a clever solution!” Cosette said. “Now come on, let’s tell someone we’ve found them before Davey dies of worry.”

“Tasteless,” Eponine muttered, gesturing to the kids to come on. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jeez cosette rude

**Author's Note:**

> It was very hard to not make Les speak in modern slang. I did my best.


End file.
